RGPP Initiatives

Parenting Matters: Parenting Matters is a collaboration of Rio Grande Prevention Partners, Del Norte Head Start, Monte Vista Recreation, Colorado State University Extension, Monte Vista High School, Public Health, schools and parents all working together to organize and coordinate parenting education efforts and resources to help families raise healthy children. Click here for more information.

Evidence Based Curriculums

Being BrainWise: The BrainWise Method uses innovative teaching techniques, a scripted curriculum, and classroom visuals to teach students a series of essential emotional, social, and cognitive skills called “The 10 Wise Ways.” Using the latest understanding of how the brain works, BrainWise takes complex cognitive concepts and presents them in a concrete and easy-to-grasp format.

Protecting You/Protecting Me:Protecting You/Protecting Me® (PY/PM) is an alcohol use prevention curriculum for children in grades 1-5. It has been designated a Model Program by SAMHSA, a division of the U.S. Department of Health. PY/PM helps reach children before they have fully shaped their attitudes and opinions about alcohol use by youth. PY/PM provides a series of science, and health-based lessons that teach children how to protect themselves and make informed decisions. The lessons reinforce the fact that the brain’s of children and adolescents are still maturing and respond to alcohol dramatically differently than those of adults, putting children at a much higher risk. In addition, the lessons also cover a variety of life skills including media awareness, communication, and vehicle safety.

Project Northland: Project Northland, designed for middle school aged youth, is based on the most rigorous alcohol-use prevention trial ever funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and was developed in a region of the country that led the nation in alcohol-related teen traffic fatalities. The program was designed by prevention researchers to delay the age when youth begin drinking, to reduce use among young people who have tried alcohol, to limit the use of other drugs, and to reduce alcohol-related problems. Project Northland employs grade-specific tasks, exercises, and activities in a variety of highly engaging, interactive formats–such as comic books and posters–to reach young people at an age when they are most likely to try alcohol. Because this program includes important community components, it can be effectively implemented by schools as well as by community programs.

Class Action: This high-school component of Project Northland looks at the real-world social and legal consequences of underage alcohol use. Based on the social influences theory of behavior change, the goal of Class Action is to change the social norms around alcohol use and to change negative peer pressure into positive peer pressure. In eight to ten weekly sessions, teens are divided into six legal teams to prepare and present hypothetical civil cases in which someone has been harmed as a result of underage drinking.

Training for Intervention ProcedureS (TiPS) : The purpose of TiPs is to educate and train all facets of society in the responsible sale, service and consumption of alcohol. TiPS trains individuals to recognize potential alcohol-related problems and intervene to prevent alcohol-related tragedies. Visit TIPS Alcohol Training website.

Compliance Checks: RGPP’s partners have conducted compliance checks in order to limit the access of alcohol to minors.

Alternative Activities: RGPP supports a wide variety of alternative activities for Rio Grande County youth in order to provide opportunities for them to participate in healthy, positive, and constructive activities that exclude substance use. These activities are assumed to offset the attraction to and/or meet the needs filled by alcohol and drugs, thereby reducing the likelihood of substance use. Some of the activities supported by RGPP include: after prom parties, activities at community events, field trips with the Monte Vista Kids Connection and High Valley Community Center, school dances, movie nights and Red Ribbon Week activities.

Healthy Kids Colorado Survey: Every other year, RGPP conducts the The Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS) at middle and high schools in the Monte Vista and Del Norte school districts. This survey collects health data from students and is used by RGPP to set base-line data and track changes in alcohol and substance use throughout the grant cycle. Click here for HKCS results.

Media Campaigns:

Talk it UP/Lock it UP: This campaign encourages parents to lock up their alcohol to decrease access to youth and increase parents’ conversations about their rules around alcohol with their children.

Parents Who Host Lose the Most: This campaign targets parents to discourage them from hosting events with alcohol for youth.

Speak Now: A state-wide campaign which encourages and guides parents on how to speak to their children about underage ATOD use.

Did You Know?: To increase knowledge of ATOD facts, parenting skills, local ATOD use statistics.